Tillis says he does not regret his Hegseth vote, based on what he knew then
Thom TillisU.S. senator for North Carolina, in an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper
In a CNN interview, Tillis said Hegseth was out of his depth as a manager and that the Armed Services Committee may have been generous in assessing him, but that he did not regret his vote based on the facts he had at the time.
“I don’t regret the decision I made back then based on the facts as I knew them then”
Reporting
Where this statement fits
Was Thom Tillis wrong to vote to confirm Pete Hegseth?
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) cast the 50th vote to confirm Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense on January 24, 2025, and Vice President JD Vance broke the 50-50 tie. Tillis said at the time that he had deferred to the Armed Services Committee and done his own due diligence, and in July 2025 he said he did not regret the vote based on what he knew then. In October 2026, promoting his book How to Lose Friends and Antagonize Presidents, he called the vote the biggest regret of his career and said he made a mistake. Critics say he had reason to vote no before he voted, pointing to his call with Hegseth's former sister-in-law days before she signed an affidavit alleging alcohol abuse and mistreatment of his second wife, allegations Hegseth denied. The dispute is whether Tillis was wrong to vote yes on what he knew in January 2025.
Source and context
Reporting
About this source
NBC News reported Tillis's remarks to CNN's Jake Tapper on July 9, 2025, including that he did not regret his vote based on what he knew at the time.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Before the quotation
NBC News reports that Tillis told CNN he voted yes because there was "never an example of an eyewitness-corroborated account" of the allegations. He also said that "with the passing of time, I think it's clear he's out of his depth as a manager of a large, complex organization" and called the pause in weapons shipments to Ukraine amateurish.
After the quotation
He added that he was "beginning to wonder if maybe Armed Services was a little bit generous" in assessing Hegseth as a manager. Asked whether he would vote for Hegseth again, he said that if all he had was the information from the day of the vote, he would.
How this statement is classified
The label describes this statement's response within the context above.
Why this label?
Relative to Tillis's January 2025 vote, he says he does not regret it on the facts he had and would cast it again on that information. That defends the vote as made. His criticism is aimed at Hegseth's performance since the vote and at the committee's assessment, so a mixed or conditional label would overstate the tension: the condition he names concerns information that came later.
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- Pete Hegseth
More from this case
Read the full caseTillis says he made a mistake in voting to confirm Hegseth
“I made a mistake. I’ve admitted that I made a mistake.”Read statement
Paige Masten says Tillis voted for Hegseth despite believing he was unfit
“That Tillis regrets voting for Hegseth is not a new revelation. But what is new — and startling — is just how convinced he was that Hegseth was unfit for the job before voting for him.”Read statement
Radley Balko calls Tillis a coward over his deciding vote for Hegseth
“Just a reminder: Tillis persuaded the woman Hegseth allegedly raped to come forward with her story, and told her that if she did, it would sink the nomination. She did. At great risk to herself. Tillis then cast the deciding vote for Hegseth. Because he’s a goddamned coward.”Read statement
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The Dispute Index. "Tillis says he does not regret his Hegseth vote, based on what he knew then". First published: 2026-10-13. Last updated: 2026-10-13. https://disputeindex.com/events/5638-in-a-cnn-interview-tillis-said-hegseth-was